Wall Street Isn’t the Political Baddie It Used to Be

A Wall Street sign hangs in front of the flag-draped facade of the New York Stock Exchange on May 11, 2007. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

As political villains go, Wall Street seems to be enjoying something of a reprieve.

No industry was more battered on the airwaves in 2012 than the financial-services sector. Candidates, parties and outside groups aired a total of more than 280,000 political ads that mentioned Wall Street, “Big Banks,” corporate “bailouts” or some other reference to the industry, according to a tally by Kantar Media’s Campaign Media Analysis Group, which tracks advertising for campaigns and outside groups. Even when presidential ads are stripped out, the total spots eclipsed 200,000 airings.

That’s not the case this year. By mid-August, roughly 15,000 ads aired that referred to Wall Street or the financial-services industry, according to CMAG numbers, a sliver of the 2012 tally. The theme has only surfaced in 28 races, including a handful of governors’ races.

The 2008 financial crisis generated plenty of animus for big financial institutions, particularly those that received a piece of the roughly $430 billion the Treasury Department doled out as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The parties seized on different messages, but disdain for Wall Street was a bipartisan crusade in the last two election cycles.

In 2012, President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies used the anti-Wall Street message to assail Republican White House nominee Mitt Romney and tarnish his resume as a private-equity executive. Republicans, meanwhile, made issue with the “bailouts,” embracing a populist message in the wake of the financial crisis to rail against increased government spending.

Wall Street remains unpopular, but its image is on the mend. One in three American adults views it negatively, according to a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll , down from 42% last September. The share of Americans who view the industry positively also edged up seven percentage points, to 21% from 14%.

That rehabilitation might be welcome news to the politicians who rely on big financial sector companies to fuel their fundraising. So far, banks, insurance companies and other financial-services firms are the top donors to the parties, candidates and outside groups, dishing out more than $281 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. That’s more money than the combination of lawyers, organized labor and the health-care sector donated.

Senate Majority PAC, a group devoted to helping Senate Democrats, has run ads accusing Republican candidates of backing policies favorable to “Wall Street bank” and “Wall Street-based underwriters.” Sen. Al Franken (D., Minn.) also invoked the industry in a spot to highlight his attempts to crackdown on credit-ratings agencies. Republican Senate candidates Joe Carr in Tennessee and Jack Kingston in Georgia also sponsored ads slamming their primary opponents for supporting bank bailouts. Both lost.

Democrats are making a big push to prevent corporations based in the U.S. from merging with foreign corporations to avoid paying taxes in this country. But the issue hasn’t emerged as a major theme in Democratic ads.

“The financial services industry was a regular punching bag for political advertisers, even before the crisis,” Elizabeth Wilner, who oversees CMAG, wrote in a column for the Cook Political Report. “Political advertisers have practical reasons for letting up on some of their most generous donors. But since they’re hardly above whacking Wall Street if they perceive it as a way to win, the drop-off suggests that, at least for now, they don’t see it that way.”

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